JIKIDEN REIKI
('Directly Taught' or 'Original Teaching' Reiki)
Copyright © 2003 James Deacon
[Modified: Jan  2009]

Jikiden is the Reiki method as taught by the late Chiyoko Yamaguchi who died Aug. 19th 2003, and her son Tadao Yamaguchi, who is Director of the Jikiden Reiki Kenkyu Kai (Jikiden Reiki Association).

Born in 1921, Mrs. Yamaguchi, a student of Chujiro Hayashi, had received her first attunement in 1938, in Daishoji, Northern Japan. [Mrs Yamaguchi's elder sister Katsue, and her uncle, Mr Wasaburo Sugano, had also been attuned to Reiki by Hayashi Sensei - Wasaburo in 1928 & Katsue in 1935 - but Mr Sugano had insisted that Chiyoko finished high school before receiving her first attunement]

Jikiden Reiki is presented as comprising the exact system that Chiyoko Yamaguchi was taught by Hayashi-Sensei, along with additional information apparently gleaned by Tadao Yamaguchi in interviews with some of Hayashi-Sensei's other surviving students?

Mrs. Yamaguchi referred to Hayashi-Sensei's system as "Hayashi Shiki Reiki Ryoho" (Hayashi Style Reiki Healing Method), though the certificate she received is said to have had the name Hayashi Reiki Ryoho Kenkyu-kai (Research Center) on it.

While some Japanese Reiki lineages focus primarily on spiritual development, in Jikiden-Reiki the focus is strongly on healing, however, unlike western-style Reiki, apparently Jikiden does not teach formal hand positions [Mrs. Yamaguchi maintained that she was not taught any formal hand positions]

She said she used have a number of notes (apparently copied from Hayashi-Sensei's - it was customary for students to copy their Teachers notes), which (along with her certificates?) were later lost in a fire in Manchuria.

The symbols (shirushi), as used in Jikiden, are slightly different to the symbols as taught by Takata-sensei. They also have different names - which are not used as mantras (jumon). The way in which the symbols are used and understood is somewhat different to that of Usui Shiki Ryoho. For example, what we refer to as the 'distance symbol', Jikiden classes not as a symbol, but as a jumon.

[Somewhat surprisingly, Chiyoko Yamaguchi had never received the fourth symbol - leading many to question whether she had actually completed the teacher level training at all.]

Jikiden has been taught in slightly different ways in recent years; for example, the first two levels - Shoden and Okuden - have, it seems, been taught together over a single 5-day workshop (the first three days - three hours per day - being devoted to the Shoden level and the last two, the Okuden level).

A 3-day version of the combined Shoden/Okuden workshop involved three hours training on the first day, and six hours on each of the two other days.

Shoden was apparently also taught alone as a three and a half day workshop (and in England it has been taught as a 2-day workshop)

At Shoden, Jikiden students learn the first Reiki symbol, and amongst other things are taught about byosen and scanning.

Okuden has also been taught alone as a 1-day course. Okuden teaches psychological and distant healing and the student learns the Jikiden version of the second symbol, and the socalled 'distance jumon' at this level.

The third level, referred to as 'Teacher' level or Shihan (Jikiden doesn't use the term 'Shinpiden' for the third level ) is apparently offered to students assessed to be of a suitable level of development.

The Teacher level itself is actually split into two parts - Shihan-Kaku (Assistant Teacher) and Shihan proper.
Those who have completed the Shihan-Kaku training are permitted to teach and initiate students to Shoden level. Shihan training is generally only offered to suitable candidates some 6 -12 months after completion of the Shihan-Kaku grade.
Those who have completed the full Shihan training are permitted to teach and initiate students to Okuden level.

[Mrs Yamaguchi is said to have achieved the Shihan-Kaku in Spring 1939 and full Shihan status in the Autumn of the same year - however, while it had previously been understood that she had completed her training with Hayashi-Sensei, it is now known that she only received Shoden and Okuden level training from Hayashi-sensei, the rest of her training apparently being provided by her uncle, Wasaburo Sugano, who had also been trained by Hayashi-sensei. ]

Beyond the grade of Shihan, there is a further grade: Dai-Shihan which is bestowed at the discretion of Tadao Yamaguchi. Those who achieve Dai-Shihan status may teach and initiate the Shihan-Kaku level; and when they have developed sufficient experience, may be permitted to teach and initiate the full Shihan level.

However, as Jikiden Reiki is supposedly Reiki as passed on to Chiyoko Yamaguchi by Hayashi-sensei - who did not teach a 'Dai-Shihan' grade to Mrs Yamaguchi (or anyone else, for that matter) - one wonders just what prompted Tadao to create and encorporate this new grade into Jikiden's teachings...

[This type of teaching structure, with its various degrees or grades of teacher - and its restrictions as to what level each grade of teacher can initiate others to - is also used by certain other styles of Reiki in Japan, such as Reido Reiki. However it is actually based on the structure to be found within Radiance Technique Reiki - the first, modified and augmented, Western style of Reiki to be introduced to Japan in the 1980's]

Jikiden Reiki, it is claimed: "is the first attempt to re-introduce 'original' Reiki to Japan and the rest of the world"...

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